Autumn carpet

May already! How did that happen?

This extraordinary green carpet of leaves is in friends’ cherry orchard. The leaves beneath three of the trees appear to have fallen following a cold night (not quite a frost) before they changed colour.

A few hours of brisk norwesterly winds have brought down heaps of leaves and I had a satisfying kick though drifts of them on our walk.

The extra is a photo bomber who made today’s blip more of a challenge than I was expecting. She insisted on sitting right in front of me as I was taking photos. Eventually I threw a couple of treats into the orchard. And surprise, surprise she moved with alacrity!

I’ve been tidying-up some more in the garden today. It dominates things at this time of year. I spent a couple of hours of cutting back overgrown tussocks and flaxes, and weeding grasses out from around some hebes.

I’m also trying to get the hens to use their feeder: a challenge which is testing my patience. More about that tomorrow…